Back in February 2015, I was sitting in Gospel Doctrine, and I had an entirely different insight into our lesson on the temptations of Christ. You know, the verses in Matthew 4, after Jesus has fasted for forty days (symbolic of suffering more than the actual number), and then the tempter tries to get Him to change the stones into bread, jump off the pinnacle of the temple to be saved by angels, and third, bow down to Satan for all the kingdoms of this world.
In class, everyone was focused on the type of temptation and how to avoid temptation — bread being the temptations of the flesh, jumping and kingdoms being pride, glory, wealth, honors of the world. People talked about how to avoid temptation with prayer, scripture reading, and making decisions ahead of time, never to do it — that kind of traditional thinking.
But as I read along, I realized that there was really nothing wrong with turning stones into bread — Jesus turns water into wine at one point. What was wrong was who was telling him to do it. Satan was telling him, not God. We live here, in hell, and it is Satan’s kingdom; let’s not forget that. While living in the telestial kingdom, our connection to the divine is through the Holy Ghost until we receive our calling and election made sure. And it is not that easy to always get a clear connection. I think that’s because we live here in Satan’s kingdom (“you have overlooked my kingdom”), and we can’t see through the veil or remember our past.
It’s all about personal revelation. Cain sinned when he obeyed Satan to make an offering to God — making an offering to God is not a sin, as Abel did that. But the sin was following Satan instead of God. When Eve partook of the fruit, it wasn’t eating the fruit that was wrong; it was that Satan told her to eat it. Not God. I don’t know how it was going to go down, but eventually, Eve and Adam had to fall for all of us to begin our sojourn in this lower kingdom. [Perhaps there was going to be a time when God offered it as a choice, and Satan jumped in there to do it himself — I don’t know.]
Look at some of the strange commandments that God has given men — to Abraham, to sacrifice his son Isaac, give his wife Sarah to Pharoah, and lie about her being his sister. Or to Nephi to cut off Laban’s head. And Joseph Smith to take plural wives.
Matthew 4 revealed to me that we must learn to follow personal, divine revelation from God. Focusing on specific sins and avoiding them is the milk of the gospel. But we must move on to the meat and learn how to follow the Holy Ghost, and obey his voice, and then level up to knowing our life is acceptable to Christ. But we have to be careful — whose voice are we listening to? Who is prompting us? Is it God? — or is it one of the tempters? Or is it our own voice? I think if we keep pride out of it, we will do well to learn the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
Marriage at Cana, Jesus turns water into wine.
Abraham offers Isaac
*Updated. Originally published Feb. 2015.
